Red UKIP came second in a swathe of seats across the north, polling above 25% in places like Boston and Skegness, Heywood & Middleton, Rotherham, Hartlepool and Rother Valley. 8,000 people voted UKIP in Morley and Outwood, where Ed Balls lost by 400 votes. If a few hundred of those UKIP voters had chosen Labour, Balls would still be an MP.

Hence why Andy Burnham’s pitch for the Labour leadership could easily have been lifted from a UKIP posters during the Wythenshawe & Sale East by-election. Big state, big spending, cutting immigration, ‘protecting’ your benefits, ‘saving’ the NHS and bringing forward the EU referendum. All offered to northern voters by Red UKIP before Purple Andy…